GuruFocus and invest-like both market themselves to value investors who care what the great investors are doing, but they are doing very different jobs once you look past the marketing. GuruFocus is the OG guru-portfolio tracker: since 2004 they have been pulling 13F filings from the SEC and surfacing what Warren Buffett, Seth Klarman, Mohnish Pabrai, and dozens of other named investors actually hold in their portfolios. invest-like takes a different approach: instead of mirroring named-investor holdings via 13F data, it runs every stock against the published rules of seven legendary investors (Buffett, Graham, Lynch, Greenblatt, Munger, Fisher, Smith) and writes you the AI verdict in plain English.
Picking between them is mostly about whether you want "what did these named investors actually buy last quarter" (GuruFocus) or "what would these named investors think of this specific stock from first principles" (invest-like).
Disclosure up front: I built invest-like, so I have a structural conflict of interest. GuruFocus is genuinely better than invest-like on multiple important dimensions (especially the 13F archive depth) and I will say so explicitly. I will also flag the recurring cancellation-flow complaints documented on Reddit and Trustpilot, because they are part of the honest picture of choosing GuruFocus today.
Quick comparison table
| Feature | invest-like | GuruFocus |
|---|
| Starting price | Free tier + $13/month annual (12 EUR) | $49/month (Premium), up to ~$499/month (Premium Plus + Global) |
| Higher tier | $15/month or $299 lifetime | Premium Plus ~$449-499/month |
| Coverage universe | ~12,500 tickers | 100,000+ global tickers |
| 13F guru-portfolio tracking | No | Yes (signature feature, since 2004) |
| Named-investor holdings updates | No | Yes (quarterly, from SEC 13F filings) |
| AI verdicts with reasoning | Yes (Buffett Brain, 5-pillar) | Limited (some AI features added recently) |
| Multi-investor framework consensus | Yes (7 frameworks: Buffett, Graham, Lynch, Greenblatt, Munger, Fisher, Smith) | No (uses screener with guru-derived factors) |
| Multi-investor debate UI | Yes (Boardroom: 4 investor AIs + skeptic) | No |
| RAG over Berkshire shareholder letters | Yes (Ask Buffett, 1977-2025) | No |
| Historical financial depth | 5-10 years | 20-30 years on many names |
| Custom screener depth | Pre-built framework filters | Yes (extensive, with guru-style preset screens) |
| Excel + CSV export | No | Yes |
| Published 5-year backtest | Yes (track-record page) | Backtest tools for user-built screens |
| Halal screening (AAOIFI Standard 21) | Yes | No |
| Multi-language UI | Yes (EN, DE, FR, ES, PT) | English-only |
| Free tier | Yes (3 AI verdicts/week + all rankings) | Very limited, mostly paid |
| Cancellation flow | One-click cancel via /account/ | Recurring complaints on Reddit + Trustpilot |
| Team age + size | Solo founder, 2026 launch | Larger team, founded 2004 |
The short read: GuruFocus wins on 13F guru-portfolio tracking, historical data depth, custom screening, and asset breadth. invest-like wins on AI verdicts in plain English, multi-investor framework consensus, Berkshire-letter RAG, halal screening, free tier generosity, pricing, and cancellation friction.
Where GuruFocus genuinely wins
GuruFocus has been live since 2004. That is over 20 years of accumulated 13F data, screening tools, and product surface. They are clearly ahead on multiple dimensions.
1. 13F guru-portfolio tracking (the signature feature)
GuruFocus's core differentiator is the 13F-driven guru-portfolio tracker. They scrape SEC 13F filings every quarter and surface what hundreds of named investors actually hold, what they bought, what they sold, what they are increasing, and what they are exiting. If you want to know which stocks Warren Buffett added to Berkshire's portfolio last quarter, Seth Klarman's current top 10 holdings at Baupost, or Mohnish Pabrai's concentrated bets in his fund, GuruFocus is built for that and invest-like is not.
invest-like has no 13F integration. We run the framework verdicts against every stock in our coverage universe, but we do not mirror what named investors actually hold. If "what did Buffett buy last quarter" is core to your process, GuruFocus is the right tool and invest-like is the wrong one.
2. Long historical archive
GuruFocus has been collecting financial data and 13F history since 2004. You can see how a stock's fundamentals have evolved over 20 years, how guru ownership has shifted over multiple market cycles, and how the company looked through the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic.
invest-like ships 5-10 years of summary financials, which is enough for the framework verdicts to render but is not the deep archive that GuruFocus has built over 20+ years. If long-horizon historical analysis is core to your process, GuruFocus wins this dimension outright.
3. Custom screener with guru-style preset screens
GuruFocus has a deep screener with hundreds of factors and a library of preset screens built on guru methodologies (Buffett-Munger screens, Peter Lynch growth screens, Graham Net-Net, etc.). You can compose your own and save them.
invest-like leans on the seven pre-built framework filters and the consensus tier. If your process is "I want to build my own custom guru screen with my own parameter tweaks", GuruFocus is more flexible.
4. Excel and CSV export
GuruFocus exports almost everything to Excel and CSV. invest-like does not ship a comparable bulk-export feature at the same depth. If you build your own spreadsheet models with platform data feeding them, GuruFocus is the better fit.
5. Asset breadth
GuruFocus covers 100,000+ global tickers including international exchanges and small-caps. invest-like focuses on ~12,500 quality-screened names. If your strategy involves small-caps or international markets outside the major developed indices, GuruFocus has the wider universe.
6. Brand recognition and longevity
GuruFocus is the most recognised brand in the guru-tracking category, with 20+ years of operating history. invest-like launched in 2026. If you weight "this team has been around long enough to keep the lights on for 20+ years" heavily, GuruFocus has the obvious edge on that dimension.
Where invest-like genuinely wins
invest-like is not a 13F archive. It is a framework-aware verdict tool. Here is where that approach wins.
1. AI verdicts with per-pillar reasoning, written in plain English
invest-like's Buffett Brain produces a structured 5-pillar verdict for any stock: moat, durability of competitive advantage, management quality, financial strength, and valuation. Each pillar gets its own paragraph with the specific data point that triggered the scoring decision. You read it like a Buffett-style write-up, not like a data dashboard.
GuruFocus shows you what gurus own, the financial ratios, the screener output, and their own proprietary scores (Predictability Rank, Financial Strength rank, etc.). It does not write you a Buffett-style verdict in plain English with reasoning per pillar. If your bottleneck is "I have the data, I need someone to reason about it in narrative form", invest-like answers that and GuruFocus does not at the same depth.
2. Multi-investor framework consensus from first principles
There is a real difference between "Buffett owns this stock as of Q1 2026 per the 13F" (what GuruFocus tells you) and "this stock passes the published rules of Buffett, Graham, Lynch, Greenblatt, Munger, Fisher, and Smith simultaneously from a fundamentals perspective" (what invest-like tells you).
The 13F data is rear-view. The named investor bought the stock when they did, you are seeing it 45 days later when the filing posts, and the price has often moved meaningfully since the actual purchase. The framework verdict is forward-look: this is what each framework thinks of the stock at today's price with today's fundamentals.
Both are valid. If you want to know what the gurus actually own right now, GuruFocus is the answer. If you want to know which kind of value investor would buy this stock at today's price from first principles, invest-like is the answer.
3. The Boardroom: multi-investor debate
invest-like's Boardroom simulates a live debate between four investor AIs (Buffett, Graham, Lynch, Greenblatt) plus a dedicated skeptic role, each arguing from their actual framework rules with citations. No competitor in the retail category ships this format. Definitely not GuruFocus.
4. Ask Buffett with Berkshire-letter RAG
invest-like indexes every Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter from 1977 to 2025, plus Charlie Munger's commentary. Ask Buffett a question about any stock and the answer cites the specific letter year and section. Real quotes from the actual source text. GuruFocus has nothing comparable, even though they have built their brand partly on Buffett-tracking.
5. Published 5-year cohort backtest
invest-like publishes the open backtest at /track-record/. The 7-of-7 framework consensus cohort (47 stocks as of May 2026) returned a median +73.8 percentage points above the S&P 500 over a rolling 5-year window, with about 85 percent of the cohort beating the index. Server-locked entry timestamps, documented methodology.
This is different from GuruFocus's user-backtest sandbox. GuruFocus lets you backtest your own custom screens (more flexible). invest-like publishes one specific methodology's backtest as an independently verifiable claim (more auditable as a single number).
6. Halal Mode (AAOIFI Standard 21)
invest-like applies the AAOIFI Standard 21 halal screen on every stock and layers it on top of the 7-framework consensus. GuruFocus does not ship a halal filter on its universe.
7. Multi-language UI
invest-like ships in English, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. GuruFocus is English-only.
8. Cleaner UX
This is subjective but worth saying honestly. GuruFocus's interface is dense and feels closer to a Bloomberg-style data terminal than a consumer product. The information density is a real strength for power users, but the learning curve is real and the visual polish lags newer entrants. invest-like is designed as a consumer-grade product first, with structured per-stock pages, clear verdict cards, and a much shorter time-to-first-insight for a new user.
If you want "open the platform, paste a ticker, get a verdict in under 30 seconds", invest-like is faster. If you want "every metric I might ever want, accessible from one screen", GuruFocus's density is the point.
9. Pricing and free tier
invest-like is 12 EUR per month annual (~$13/month) with a generous free tier (3 AI verdicts per week, all rankings, the published backtest, the consensus screen). GuruFocus starts at $49/month for Premium and goes up to ~$449-499/month for Premium Plus with Global coverage. invest-like is roughly 4x cheaper at the entry tier and 30-35x cheaper than GuruFocus's top tier.
10. Cancellation flow
This is worth a direct mention. GuruFocus has accumulated complaints on Reddit (r/SecurityAnalysis, r/ValueInvesting) and Trustpilot about its cancellation flow: users reporting auto-renewal surprises, friction with cancelling subscriptions before renewal, and difficulty getting refunds when the renewal hits. These are documented user complaints, not a claim about the product itself. If the cancellation flow matters to you (and for many subscription buyers it does), it is worth reading recent reviews before signing up.
invest-like ships a one-click cancel through the /account/ page and pro-rates annual subscriptions within the 7-day money-back window. No retention dark patterns, no "talk to a human first" friction.
I am not the right person to objectively evaluate either platform's customer-service operations, but the difference in cancellation user-experience reports is large enough that it is worth your due diligence before subscribing to GuruFocus at a higher tier.
Who should pick GuruFocus
You will probably get more out of GuruFocus if:
- You actively track 13F filings and want to mirror named-investor portfolios (Buffett, Klarman, Pabrai, Einhorn, etc.)
- You want 20+ years of historical financial and ownership data
- You compose your own custom guru-style screens with extensive parameter customisation
- You use Excel models with platform data feeding them
- You need global coverage including small-caps and international markets
- You are comfortable spending $49-499 per month for a deep guru-tracking and screening platform
- You weight team longevity (live since 2004) heavily
- You have read the recent cancellation-flow reviews and you are comfortable with the renewal terms
Who should pick invest-like
You will probably get more out of invest-like if:
- You want a structured Buffett-style verdict in plain English with reasoning per pillar
- You want seven different value-investing frameworks scored separately on the same stock with a consensus tier
- You want the multi-investor Boardroom debate
- You want Berkshire-letter citations via Ask Buffett
- You care about a methodology-level published backtest you can verify
- You need a halal-investing filter
- You read research in German, French, Spanish, or Portuguese
- You want a generous free tier with three AI verdicts per week
- You want to pay $13/month rather than $49-499/month
- You specifically want a one-click, no-friction cancellation flow
The honest case for using both
If your budget allows it, GuruFocus plus invest-like is a coherent stack for the named-investor and framework-verdict sides of the workflow:
- Use GuruFocus for: 13F portfolio tracking, what Buffett/Klarman/Pabrai are buying and selling, long historical archive, custom guru-style screens
- Use invest-like for: the AI verdict in plain English on each stock you find via GuruFocus, the multi-investor framework consensus from first principles, the Boardroom debate, Berkshire-letter RAG, halal filter
Total cost: roughly $62 per month combined at GuruFocus Premium plus invest-like Pro. The two tools are genuinely complementary. GuruFocus tells you what the gurus actually own. invest-like tells you what the framework verdict on each name is from first principles.
A natural use case: GuruFocus surfaces a stock that Mohnish Pabrai just added to his concentrated portfolio. You open the same ticker on invest-like at /buffett/[ticker]/ and see whether the 7-framework consensus agrees with Pabrai's bet at today's price. If both the 13F and the framework agree, that is a higher-conviction signal than either alone.
How to verify this comparison yourself
The honest test: open the same name on both tools.
- On GuruFocus: look at the 13F holders for the stock (which named investors own it, when they bought, what their average cost basis is). Look at the 20-year fundamentals chart. Run a custom Buffett-Munger screen.
- On invest-like at /buffett/aapl/ (or any ticker that came out of your GuruFocus screen): read the Buffett Brain 5-pillar verdict, look at the per-framework consensus chips (Buffett, Graham, Lynch, Greenblatt, Munger, Fisher, Smith), run the Boardroom (free up to 3x per week), ask Buffett a question about the stock.
Decide which framing actually helps you make the decision. If knowing what the gurus actually own is the highest-value framing for you, GuruFocus wins. If a structured framework verdict at today's price is the highest-value framing, invest-like wins.
Common questions
Is GuruFocus worth $49 per month? If you actively track 13F filings and use the long historical archive, yes. The 20-year data depth and guru-portfolio tracking is genuinely valuable for that use case and hard to replicate. If you mostly want a verdict on the stocks you are considering, the value is less obvious because GuruFocus will not write you that verdict.
Is GuruFocus worth $449-499 per month at the top tier? That is enterprise-level pricing for a retail product. The Premium Plus tier with Global coverage unlocks the international and small-cap data depth, but at that price you are competing with semi-institutional alternatives like S&P Capital IQ, FactSet, or Sentieo. Most retail value investors will not get $499 of monthly value from GuruFocus over the Premium tier.
Is invest-like worth $13 per month? If you want a structured Buffett-style verdict on individual stocks with multi-investor framework consensus, yes. The free tier gives you three AI verdicts per week and all the ranking pages, so you can evaluate the methodology before paying anything.
Does GuruFocus have AI features? GuruFocus has added some AI-assisted features over the past few years. The core of the product is still 13F tracking, the long historical archive, and the custom screener. The structured Buffett-style verdict with per-pillar reasoning is not GuruFocus's primary output.
Does invest-like have 13F tracking? No. We do not pull 13F filings or mirror named-investor portfolios. The seven framework verdicts apply to stocks from first principles at today's price, independent of what any named investor actually owns.
Is the GuruFocus cancellation flow really a problem? Read recent Trustpilot and Reddit reviews and decide for yourself. There is a recurring pattern of users reporting auto-renewal surprises and friction cancelling before the renewal date. invest-like ships a one-click cancel through the /account/ page with a 7-day money-back window. I am not the right person to objectively evaluate GuruFocus's CS operations, but the difference in user reports is large enough to be worth your due diligence.
Which one has better data depth? GuruFocus, by a meaningful margin on historical depth and named-investor ownership. invest-like has 5-10 years of summary financials, which is enough for the framework verdicts but is not the deep archive that GuruFocus has built since 2004.
Can I trust either of these tools? Both publish methodology and data at meaningful depth. Trust the methodology, not the verdict or guru-portfolio data in isolation. Past framework verdicts and past 13F ownership patterns do not guarantee future stock returns. Do your own research.
Disclosure
This is an opinionated comparison written by the founder of invest-like. GuruFocus is genuinely a strong product in the 13F guru-tracking category and I have tried to be specific about where they win. I have also flagged the recurring cancellation-flow complaints because they are part of the honest picture of choosing GuruFocus today. If you think I have mischaracterised GuruFocus anywhere, please email me at zaid@invest-like.com and I will update the post.
GuruFocus is a product of GuruFocus.com, LLC, not affiliated with invest-like. Both are educational tools, not investment advisers. Past framework verdicts and past 13F ownership patterns do not guarantee future stock returns. Do your own research.
Author: Zaid Ghazal, founder of invest-like, indie SaaS, Kiel, Germany.